10/23/2015

This is one of the strangest areas of endurance sports for me, hydration and electrolyte replacement and quite honestly is not something I am sure I have figured out, even after completing 13 Ironmans.

We hear the marketing message being sold by Gatorade, our bodies need all the ingredients that are in their drink - potassium, sodium, calories that are in the carbohydrate form. I do partially believe that our bodies need these in our long workouts which I consider more than 90 minutes.

I am just not sure our bodies "NEED" them, absolutely must have them. I use a brand called Carbo Pro for calories and Skratch Labs for the electrolyte part of the equation and my stomach behaves well with these. I have had nightmarish races where I relied on Gatorade or other brands that were on the course. This is the HATE part of the post. Bad stomach equals bad race!!!!

I do feel the calories being delivered to my body with Carbo Pro helps me in Ironman. I am out there typically for 13+ hours so there is an obvious need for calories.

Where I am wondering if I have been incorrect in their use is in training. Not on the long days where calorie ingestion is critical but in shorter workouts. Historically I have even used them in very short workouts. This is going to change over the winter. I am going "Paleo" in my training nutrition in that I will rely on only water and food for short to medium workouts.

The other benefit that I see that may happen is a slight weight loss and better fat adaptation. Stay tuned on that, I will update you as I go. I am currently weighing 181.6 as I woke up today and I am trying to really bring that down over the winter.

Comments

This is one of the strangest areas of endurance sports for me, hydration and electrolyte replacement and quite honestly is not something I am sure I have figured out, even after completing 13 Ironmans.

We hear the marketing message being sold by Gatorade, our bodies need all the ingredients that are in their drink - potassium, sodium, calories that are in the carbohydrate form. I do partially believe that our bodies need these in our long workouts which I consider more than 90 minutes.

I am just not sure our bodies "NEED" them, absolutely must have them. I use a brand called Carbo Pro for calories and Skratch Labs for the electrolyte part of the equation and my stomach behaves well with these. I have had nightmarish races where I relied on Gatorade or other brands that were on the course. This is the HATE part of the post. Bad stomach equals bad race!!!!

I do feel the calories being delivered to my body with Carbo Pro helps me in Ironman. I am out there typically for 13+ hours so there is an obvious need for calories.

Where I am wondering if I have been incorrect in their use is in training. Not on the long days where calorie ingestion is critical but in shorter workouts. Historically I have even used them in very short workouts. This is going to change over the winter. I am going "Paleo" in my training nutrition in that I will rely on only water and food for short to medium workouts.

The other benefit that I see that may happen is a slight weight loss and better fat adaptation. Stay tuned on that, I will update you as I go. I am currently weighing 181.6 as I woke up today and I am trying to really bring that down over the winter.